Why No One Wanted to Buy This $2M Business
Hey, it’s Kay.
In 5 minutes, you’ll learn why most businesses fail to sell because they rely too much on the owner.
This newsletter shows how to fix that.
The Sharp Take
Making money doesn't make your business sellable. In today's market, buyers are cautious, banks are stricter, and chaos gets discounted.
You don't sell income. You sell ownership.
Systems in Practice
This week’s system: INTELLIGENT OWNER FRAMEWORK
When buyers walk, it's rarely about profit. It's about transferability. The Intelligent Owner framework helps you fix that.
Download the free framework here.
Phase 1: Stabilize Get out of survival mode.
-
Owner Reality Check: What's burning you out? Where are you irreplaceable?
-
Cash Clarity: Weekly cash dashboarding. Track margin, not just revenue.
-
Ops Reset: Clarify ownership. Clean up systems. Stop the chaos.
Phase 2: Systemize Make your business run without you.
-
Team Autonomy: Eliminate key person risk. Cindy in finance the only person that knows how to run payroll? Eeeeeek.
-
Process Intelligence: Document repeatable tasks. Where it makes sense, use tech like Notion, Google Suite, Quickbooks Online, AI.
-
Schedule Rebuild: Shift from doing to deciding. Practice delegating before yo self-destruct. The goal should be for you to stay in your zone of genius.
Phase 3: Strategize Run a business that gives you freedom.
-
Freedom Metrics: Time, profit, and autonomy are all practically possible.
-
Growth On Purpose: More intention, not more chaos, on your terms.
-
Exit Optionality: A business that works with or without you, so you decide whether to pass it on to family or to take chips off the table.
This is how owners step back not fall apart.
Value Vault: Don’t Be Billy
I sold a liquor store making over $2 million a year. Billy insisted it "ran without him" because family filled the roles.
Reality check:
-
His nephew ran the shop and repairs
-
His wife ran bookkeeping and payroll
-
His son was the only one who knew the suppliers
-
The books were cooked (underreported revenue)
Every buyer walked.
Because buyers don't want your hustle.
They want your system.
They also can’t finance a business and meet your valuation expectations if you’re not reporting revenue to save on taxes.
It took a long time for Billy’s business to sell, and it did so only after he got honest.
The Market
The Small Business Optimism Index is sinking drastically since the year kicked off.
-
The percentage of owners expecting better business conditions fell 16 points and those expecting higher real sales volumes fell 11 points.
-
6% reported their last loan was harder to get than in previous attempts, up four points from February.
Point being, our economic climate is a mess and a business that runs without the owner gets the highest valuation multiple.
Everything else gets ignored or discounted.
Download it here.
Stay rebellious,
kay
p.s. do you have a feedback? Just hit reply. I respond to all messages.
